distributor gone?

[drewh01]

Hi all,

I've got a '95 Integra VTi-R... had a very 'interesting' series of events happen this morning - went to put petrol, car started fine. Put the petrol in, was going out of the stations onto the road and them boom - the car stalled. Tried to start it again a few times, but nothing at all. My first thought was 'fuel contamination'.

Called RACQ and in about an hour a tow truck came and towed it back home. The RACQ patrol then came home and checked the car.

The fuel pump was working fine as he loosened the pressure regulator and fuel spurted out a bit. He then took out a spark plug & ign wire, and got me to try starting the car (to check if there was a spark). Answer - no spark, nothing.

So he said he thinks its the distributor (which makes sense). Incidentally, I was hearing a high pitched, but constant noise from the engine bay for the last few months. Thought it was a vacuum leak as it continued a few seconds after switching the engine off, but maybe it was actually the distributor.

What should my next move be? I have the service manual, and it showed how to test the ignition coil (for a certain resistance) so I was going to do that. Is there anyway I could narrow it down to say the rotor button etc (the RACQ guy said some Hondas had problems with it).

I'm hoping I don't have to replace the whole dist (be like $1000+ right)....!

Appreciate anyones help/input, thanks!
Andrew

[MRK20CRX]

Was the sound u were hearing from the bay like a grinding sound, and was it while driving or on idle? My distributor was dying and it made a grinding and wierd whirling sound, so I got a new obd0 dizzy from distributor king in the US for 260us bucks and spoon leads with iridium plugs, solved the problem and the lil crx is running at it's best

[drewh01]

hiya - no the noise was a high-pitched constant 'whine'. Occasionally it wouldnt be there, and if I then revved the engine a bit it would be noticeable. It also stayed on a few seconds after switching the engine off.

They two things might not be connected... I'm more worried about what to do re this distributor / checking to see what is gone.

[MRK20CRX]

That sucks man, I knew my dizzy was gone because the noise was come directly from the dizzy so it was an easy fix. When mine died I could still turn the engine on, but it would misfire and eventually just stall, was it misfiring? Was the CEL (check engine light) on?

[drewh01]

nup didnt misfire at all - I did notice fuel economy was a fair bit down (like 80 less km's per tank), but thought that noise might have been a vacuum leak and so it was running richer.

The car started pretty much fine when going to put petrol, and even after filling and starting no signs of misfiring - until i got onto the road 15 seconds later, and then all the lights came on the dash and it stalled.

You know that malfunction light thing - does it flash for distributor problems? (you know you short the ECU connector and then it flashes depending on the problem).

Thanks for your help man

[beeza]

Yeah,do an ECU code check and see what comes up:

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthr...ecu+code+check

You can get a whole dizzy from the wreckers for $200.

Unless you know someone with the same car,then you can swap in thier rotor,icm etc and see which one was the culprit.

I've been through this a couple of times and now have a spare coil,icm,dizzy cap.So whatever you don't use from the dizzy,you got spare anyways.

[MRK20CRX]

Don't use second hand dizzy, always best to get brand new, if you have problems with a second hand one, you'll be back to square one, so u can perfect the timing to spec, if I could hear the noise, and if it's similar to the problem that I had, it would definitely be the dizzy, how many kms are on the car

[beeza]

True,it's just that it's nearly always a case of need it now!

It would be best to wait though and buy new,forsure forsure.

[Joee]

Im actually having the same problem at the moment..... Re-did the fuel pump and had the dizzy overhauled but its still happening..... Thats not to say that if you replace your dizzy it will happen..... Anyway take your dizzy to your mechanic and get them to send it off 2 get overhauled.... They changed the ignitor and rotor cap for me and it was under $200.

[beeza]

So what will U do now Joe?

[Joee]

So what will U do now Joe?

No idea, Ive tried it a couple of times over the past few hours and it wont start. Should be able to crank over tomorrow so ill drive it back into the garage and start testing the harness and connections. It is however pulling a code 15 if that helps anybody.

[beeza]

Code 15 - Ignition output signal

Can drive ya nuts,these sort of things.

U can get a diagnostics fella to come around and hook up a computer to it and find EXACTLY where the problem is,might cost $150-$200 though.